Humpty Dumpty sat on a hill,
Humpty Dumpty had a great spill;
All the Teenies, ladies and men,
Can’t put Humpty Dumpty together again.
—_Rufus Rhyme, Teenie Weenie Poet_.
“WELL, madam,” said the General, lifting his hat and bowing politely to
the old hen who lived near the shoe house, “will it be possible for you
to furnish the Teenie Weenies with an egg for their Easter dinner this
year?”
“Why, yes, of course,” snapped the old hen. “Ain’t I always ready to lay
an egg when I gets my pay?”
“Dear me,” whispered the Lady of Fashion to the Doctor, “did you ever in
all your life hear such bad grammar?”
“How much will you charge us?” asked the General, as he sat down on a
pebble.
“Twenty-five grains of corn,” answered the hen, glaring about at the
Teenie Weenies.
“Great guns!” exclaimed the General, “why, that’s five bags, and last
year we paid you only three.”
“Things are awfully high now and worms are scarce; well, all right, you
can have an egg for twenty grains of corn, and not one grain less,”
cried the old hen.
“That’s pretty expensive,” said the General, “but it wouldn’t seem like
Easter if we didn’t have a boiled egg, so I’ll take it and we’ll bring
over the corn in the morning and get the egg.”
The next morning the little folks filled four teenie weenie bags with
corn. Five grains were put into each bag and it was about all a Teenie
Weenie could do to carry it.
When the Teenie Weenies arrived at the hen’s house they opened the bags
and poured the corn out on the ground so the old hen could count them,
for she was a businesslike old lady and wanted to be sure that she was
getting her full amount of corn.
“I’m not afraid you’ll cheat me,” she said, “but any one is liable to
make a mistake and I always believe in being careful in a business
deal.”
“That’s right, that’s right,” said a big rooster with a huge double
chin, who strutted up to the hen house. “You can’t be too careful when
it’s a matter of business.”
“How are you going to get the egg home?” asked the old hen.
“Oh we can roll it very nicely,” answered the General.
“Well, I was just going to say that I couldn’t deliver it at the low
price of twenty grains of corn,” cackled the hen. “Give me ten grains
more and I’ll walk over to the shoe house and lay it anywhere you say.”
“It isn’t far and we can roll it easily,” answered the General.
“Well clear out and give me a little time and I’ll lay the egg for you,”
said the hen. “You don’t think I can lay an egg with all you folks
standin’ around here starin’, do you?”
The Teenie Weenies retired to the other end of the chicken yard, where
they sat down on several corn cobs to wait.
Presently the old hen announced the laying of the egg with loud cackles
and the little folks started at once to roll the egg home.
It was easy work rolling the egg over the level ground, but when the
Teenie Weenies came to a steep hill that lay in their path they found
that it would be necessary to use ropes in order to let it down safely.
The little fellows rolled the egg up to the edge of the hill, while the
Turk made the ropes ready to handle the heavy load.
Suddenly a puff of wind struck the egg and it rolled over the edge of
the hill. The Cook and Gogo tried to catch it, but they were too late,
and the egg and the two Teenie Weenies tumbled down the hill. The
Policeman, who was standing below, just had time to fall out of the way
as the egg and the Cook rolled past him and smashed up against an old
birch.
The Cook was able to save a great deal of the broken egg, which he
dipped up into many wash tubs and thimbles. The Teenie Weenies went to
bed that night with heavy hearts, for they knew that it would be quite
impossible to buy another egg at such high prices.
Easter morning Shoehurst was filled with the greatest excitement, for on
the ground in front of the house lay a fine big egg. Most of the Teenie
Weenies thought the Easter rabbit had left the egg, but they were
greatly mistaken, for the old hen, who was really a kind-hearted old
lady in spite of her gruff manner, had heard of the broken egg and,
feeling sorry for the little people, had slipped over early in the
morning and laid the egg herself.
[‡Illustration: Tumbling]
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